If you stop and think about it, swimming pools are a lot like convertibles.
Trust me, follow along and this will all make sense in a minute.
Seriously, despite swimming pools and convertibles being two completely different objects with vastly different functions, if you want to rob either of them of their glamour and pizzazz, you only need to do one thing: Put a roof over them.
Put a roof over a convertible, and suddenly that exotic supercar you were cruising the city with becomes what’s more commonly known as a two-door coupe. Do the same thing to a swimming pool, and rather than lounging in the sun with friends, you’re probably just swimming a few laps at your local rec centre, checking the wall clock to see when your lane swim ends.
Like convertibles, the barrier of entry to getting your own outdoor pool can also be prohibitively high (it can cost over $12,000 to install an in-ground pool, without factoring in the price of labour), especially if you’re a magazine intern with a few thousand dollars of student loan debt. It’s no coincidence that getting invited to the pool party is the ultimate status symbol of every early 2000s teen drama and, when you got there, there was probably a convertible parked in the driveway.
Unfortunately — and I promise this is the end of this drawn-out metaphor — this article doesn’t have any tips on how to get your hands on an affordable, lightly used convertible. But if you want to go for an outdoor swim this summer without footing a five-figure installation fee, you’re in luck. Thanks to the recently announced reopening of City of Edmonton outdoor pools, taking a dip this summer won’t cost you more than $9.
Although City of Edmonton outdoor pools are still operating under reduced capacity, Edmontonians can now book swims at Queen Elizabeth, Fred Broadstock and Oliver outdoor pools. Mill Creek outdoor pool is closed for the season due to ongoing rehabilitation work. There is still no news regarding Borden Natural Swimming Pool. But, for now, the pool remains closed.
That means anyone living near the outskirts of the city might have to make a bit of a drive to make it to one of the outdoor pools, but with temperatures set to soar into the mid-30s over the weekend, I would say it’s probably worth it.
Swims are available in one-hour blocks and can be booked through the City of Edmonton website.
